When fighting a fire in a burning building, it is easy for a fire fighter to become disoriented and/or lose his or her sense of direction. This is particularly true when an individual is in a dark or smoke-filled room. Unfortunately, there have been far too many incidences of fire fighters becoming disoriented inside burning buildings, resulting in injuries and deaths. As a result, there is a tremendous need to improve safety conditions for fire fighters.
There have been many efforts directed to improving safety conditions for fire fighters. Among these are U.S. Design Pat. No. 382,501 to Clement which teaches a direction indicating band attachable to the exterior surface of a fire fighting hose to direct an individual toward the exit of a building. U.S. Pat. No. 4,844,000 to Clement discloses a direction indicating clamp that may be attached to a fire fighting hose. The direction indicating clamp partially surrounds the hose with an encircling elongated band. The band has protruding elongated extension fingers that point toward the exit of the building.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,027,741 to Smith et al. discloses another fire fighting hose which indicates an escape route from a fire. The fire fighting hose is a conventional hose having an outer surface of fire resistant fibers that are woven into the exterior canvas surface of the hose. The fibers are generally stiff so as to maintain a substantially constant angle with respect to the exterior surface of the hose, thereby forming a brush surface surrounding the hose. The brush surface is rough to the touch in the direction of the fire and smooth to the touch in the opposing direction, i.e., the direction to the exit of the building.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,623,890 to Lenske discloses a fire fighting hose having a coupling that indicates the direction to the exit of a building. The coupling has a cylindrical body with a plurality of lugs attached to the outside surface of the cylindrical body. Each lug features directional extensions and a raised indicia (e.g., the word "exit") to direct the fire fighter to the exit. The coupling component has a threaded extension so that the component may be threaded to a female coupling component.
Although the above-mentioned safety devices provide some assistance, there remains a need for a fire fighting hose having visual indicia on the exterior surface thereof that enables a fire fighter to visually see where the fire fighting hose is located, and then follow the visual indicia to the exit of a building.